21 January 2016 4:30 PM

Poland, once again, Produces More History than it can Consume Locally

If you have consonants to spare, prepare to use them now. This is about Poland. a country that so often produces more history than it can consume locally. A new and fascinating crisis is erupting on the eastern fringes of the German Empire, sorry, European Union. As the Ukraine crisis, provoked by US-backed EU expansionism, sinks into torpor and stalemate, Poland is now pushing at the boundaries of ‘limited sovereignty’.

So let us begin with a quick rummage through the Cupboard of the Yesterdays:

Now, ‘limited sovereignty’ was formulated 100 years ago by Richard von Kuehlmann, the Kaiser’s Foreign Secretary. He was trying to put a landmine under the Russian Empire in Poland, the Baltic states and Ukraine. In the middle of the 1914-18 war, Berlin invented a pseudo ‘Kingdom of Poland’ to try to win over Poles who lived under direct Russian tyranny. Then came the collapse of Imperial Russia (brought about by the Bolshevik putsch in Petrograd, financed by German gold and prepared by the German agent Ulyanov, codenamed ‘Lenin’, smuggled into Russia under the supervision of the German general staff).

Germany’s intervention, and its decision to hire Lenin, was not idealistic and didn't even pretend to be (as its equivalent would nowadays) . The Bolshevik putsch followed the February revolution, a genuine political convulsion from below, which had overthrown the Romanovs and would have led to a constituent assembly, elected by what is almost certainly still the most free and democratic poll ever to have taken place in Russia. The Bolshevik coup destroyed the first non-autocratic government Russia had ever had, as that government wished to continue the war against Germany.

And these created the new, wholly German-dominated state of Ukraine. That was limited sovereignty, if ever there was such a thing. How all this would have worked out we shall never know, since Germany’s defeat in the West (by no means foreordained) cancelled the Brest-Litovsk Treaties.

Soviet Russia eventually grabbed back Ukraine by force. Poland became a French client state, and the Versailles jig-saw - supposedly a barrier against a revived Germany - replaced the former empires of the region with new states based on national self-determination. But it was complicated by the presence of awkward, unenthusiastic national minorities within their borders. As always, such minorities came in very handy when aggression needed to be justified.

is especially forgotten (as is the anti-Semitism that was rife in that country at the time) because it upsets the ‘plucky little Poland’ myth, part of the general myth in which World War Two has been transformed into a simple struggle between good and evil, by ignoring large quantities of actual history.

I make no apologies for this history lesson. These things, along with the bodily westward shifting of Poland to satisfy Stalin in 1945, the Soviet massacre of Polish officers at Katyn (subject of an official lie maintained in Poland and the Soviet bloc until the fall of Communism) , the very violent and cruel mass expulsion of ethnic Germans from the region after 1945 (http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2012/11/orderly-and-humane.html )

are not forgotten in these regions and still influence thought and speech.

So bear them in mind when you study Poland’s new government, described in tones of maidenly horror by Europe’s liberal, pro-EU media,( and in tones of absolute loathing by Ryszard, a Polish acquaintance who works in a coffee shop near my London office and who is utterly horrified by what has overtaken his home country).

I myself do not much like this government. Its main strength flows from the fact that it has an absolute parliamentary majority, with which it is seeking to impose its will on the courts and the state broadcaster. The things about it which I quite like (a combination of social conservatism and resistance to mass immigration, with social democratic welfare measures and a real concern for the unemployed) are cancelled out by its unreliability on the key issues of law and liberty.

The best critical articles about it come from my old friend Tim Garton Ash, who (despite being a bit liberal) knows more about Poland than almost any English person. Tim was fairly relaxed to start with

The EU, having been burned by intervening in Austrian politics some years ago, and has had similar difficulties with the Orban government in (much smaller) Hungary, is probably itching to put pressure on this wayward member. But the EU is also constrained by the fact that it is nowadays rather obviously dominated by Germany, a country which is debarred by history from intervening too openly in Polish internal affairs. Martin Schulz, the German President of the European ‘Parliament’ , probably hasn’t helped get Poland to conform by describing events in Warsaw as having ‘the characteristics of a coup d’etat’:

Maybe a French politician could have got away with this. But a German? Such interventions only strengthen the Law and Justice Party, and allow it to preen itself as a patriotic force. You’d think Germans would realise this, but they don’t always seem to.

Germany’s EU Commissioner Guenther Oettinger has said there is a ‘a lot to be said for activating the mechanism of the rule of law and putting Warsaw under supervision’. Supervision! So much for EU members being truly independent states (which of course they are not, but which, under ‘limited sovereignty’ they must be allowed to pretend to be).

I don't ,as I say, much like Law and Justice.

But then again, I did not much like its forerunner, which was pathetically pro-EU, though it wisely kept out of the Euro) and accepted huge quantities of EU money while its own native industries shrivelled and a low-wage economy more or less forced huge numbers of young men and women to find work abroad to support their families. It also imposed the EU’s secular, politically correct ideas on a Poland where many people are still conservative Roman Catholics.

What Tim Garton Ash notices about the Law and Justice government (and what I find most fascinating about it) is this. It is a new combination, deeply dangerous to the modern consensus. It is Corbynite on the welfare state, but conservative on culture and migration:

‘PiS [the Law and Justice Party’s rather unfortunate acronym in Polish] represents a large part of Polish society: patriotic, Catholic, conservative inhabitants of small towns and villages, especially in the poorer east and south-east of the country; people who don’t feel they have benefited from the transition to market democracy. It promises a strong state to protect them from the cold winds of economic and social liberalism. It is rightwing in culture, religion, sexual morality (no abortion or in vitro fertilisation), xenophobia (no Muslim refugees please, we’re Polish) and nationalism, but almost leftwing in its economic and social promises to the poor and left-behind’.

I am puzzled that no such combination has yet arisen in Britain, and can only explain it by the Labrador-like devotion of British social conservatives to a Blairite Tory Party which repeatedly kicks them in the ribs with its well-polished brogues, laughing as it does so. I have tried to challenge this barmy, servile devotion, but found it impenetrable.

The other thing is this. The EU has coddled Poland (with aid which will total 100 billion Euros by 2020) and not pressed it too hard to join the Euro. It has seen it as a star member, compliant, and an example which Ukraine might one day follow. And now, after a long period when it seemed to be on a smooth flight-path to ever-closer union, Poland’s national sentiments, previously buried under layers of Euromoney, have reawoken, partly thanks to harsh economic conditions and partly because a nation which has only recently re-established itself feels particularly threatened by Angela Merkel’s relaxed policy onwards Muslim migrants.

These are fundamental problems, not easily resolved either by negotiation or by pressure. Europe’s bitter, difficult history has come back once again to poke the idealists in the eye. The debts of 1914 have not yet been paid in full, and the damage it did is not yet repaired. Watch with interest.

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I have to compeltely disagree with a typical British out of focus view of Poland and our history, and indeed our current politics. Peter Hitchens whom I do keep in high regard has to seriously read up more before shifting simplistic shortcuts and quite absurd myths around.

Read up on the Magdalenka meeting, and the Night Shift of the Olszewski's govt in the early 90s.

Alan Thomas , I do try to take things with a pinch of salt , I was simply recalling a conversation in which that was mentioned , in reply to your other question , I do not think they are having much success in saving , converting people back to or introducing them to the faith . I have a question , how do you confuse a jehovahs witness ? ask them in .
Happy Friday , all the best for the weekend .

There are all sorts of subject that claim the attention of the 'informed' - Premier football teams being an example. But taking 'support-come-what-may' into account is probably wise before accepting other's views as 'gospel' or otherwise...do you not think?

I might be wrong, I was surfing channels at the time, but I'm pretty certain I heard it stated on that programme chaired by Stephen Fry that, the USA has more missionaries entering the country to save souls than any other and *not* the UK.

Alan Thomas , No mate He did not give me any details , He was well informed on these things . He was very religious Himself and He took it as a personal insult , that any missionaries would come to Britain .Especialy the religion that apparently baptises long dead people into their version of faith .
He did not believe in Darwinism either .

I can only assume that this argument about Roman Catholics etc came about because of PHs reference to the secular EU and the resilient religious tendency of Poland .
I would point out for information that the Country with the largest number of missionaries sent to try to save its people from eternal damnation is , I am reliably informed by a lay preacher , The United Kingdom .

I can only assume that this argument about Roman Catholics etc came about because of PHs reference to the secular EU and the resilient religious tendency of Poland .
I would point out for information that the Country with the largest number of missionaries sent to try to save its people from eternal damnation is , I am reliably informed by a lay preacher , The United Kingdom .

Death, judgment, heaven and hell are all in the Bible. You will find plenty of references to hell in the Sermon on the Mount for example.

'Anonymous' uses the Bible, which the Catholic Church partially wrote and declared canonical (i.e. it determined which books were and were not authoritative).

" why has no Catholic ever tried to warn or convert me?"

This is a very dark time in the Church right now, which has included the lack of proper teaching for at least the last 50 years. Hence, most Catholics are not really aware of the fact that we are meant to evangelise in order to save souls.

"...If they had the resources your church commands they would have converted half the world by now."

Perhaps. Some of us are trying to make up for it now.

If you have any more questions for me, I do also comment regularly at the Catholic Herald.

2) All my life I've heard awful things about Catholics, "the popes are in hell...".

.....
All my life ive heard wonderful things about the pope. As a child I spent most of my time at my grandmothers house which was plastered with images and photos of the pope in every room. I even used to pray with a gold Vatican medal the pope gave my father just because the pope had touched it.

Lawrence "If one of you is right, billions of people who thought they were going to paradise may be screaming in unimaginable pain, right now, forever. Ever since I was told about hell when I was 6 or 7, I have always hoped no such place exists."

>
No such place exists Lawrence, this is Catholic scaremongering and is doing more harm than good as it reflects badly on Gods character, eternal torture is not taught in the Bible, however, everlasting punishment is - i.e extinction/death.

>
This is the same guy who wrote "Secret Societies Debunked"? In other words a useful idiot for hire. He knows who he needs to impress and what market wants to lap up his nonsense. He is a book seller Lawrence. He makes money selling books. I don't.

ali "Does anyone else find their jaw hitting the floor when they read the grotesque tirades against Catholics?"

>
Ali, my mother is a Catholic, I love her, strong debate is not bigoted and wrong. It is how we separate the wheat from the chaff, truth from error. Even if that means we upset our loved ones. It is violence that is always wrong.

"Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division: For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother in law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against her mother in law."

>
Strange how as soon as we stop burning Guy Fawkes every Nov 5th all of a sudden we are capitulating to a Jesuit dominated EU. Do you think that perhaps are traditions were supposed to teach us something important? That history tends to repeat?

This blog is infiltrated by those seeking others adhere to a foreign power. I hope they will resist and stay faithful to God and country. And yes, I have utterly renounced my Irish side, although obviously I love my mother and get on ok with my uncles (who are mainly trendy buddhists now).

1) Until I was 25 I thought IRA was the only terrorist group in NI.
2) All my life I've heard awful things about Catholics, "the popes are in hell...".
3) Guy Fawkes night, Drake, hero of the Main; evil Mary, wonderful Elisabeth..."

>
Lawrence, I am genuinely saddened to hear you think you have been persecuted by Protestants who have called you names. Or done horrible things to effigies of terrorists who tried to mass murder Protestants by blowing up the Houses of Parliament.

Are you from Northern Ireland? I have never been there myself but I would guess, despite the propaganda, that even Catholics can give as good as they get at times? The Birmingham pub bombings comes to mind, where my father, a police officer had to pick up the dead parts of handicapped children and put them in a bag.

Lawrence, the only Protestant I have ever really known was my father and he was so lukewarm he was bordering on atheism at the times.

My family are all Irish Catholics. I was brought up a Catholic, but at the age of 10 I had a spiritual experience in which an angel told me the RCC had sadly fallen and was now the Mystery Babylon spoken off in Revelation 17 and that I had to tell my Catholic family this. Fortunately my grandmother believed me and I stopped attending just in time as the family priest was Father Christopher Clonan, (now deceased) a pedophile priest (and we did not know this at the time), as the Telegraph says "Paedophile priest costs the Catholic Church £1m for a decade of sex abuse against boys". You can google him. Due to my spiritual experience and the angel telling us to flee Babylon he never got me.

"Flee from Babylon! Run for your lives! Do not be destroyed because of her sins. It is time for the LORD's vengeance; he will repay her what she deserves."

"Neither I nor any Catholic I know would ever refer to ourselves as "Roman Catholic." "

It identifies one of the two sides of the Great Schism in Christendom in 1054, that between Western and Eastern Catholicism. The Roman rite stuck with the Pope, the Bishop of Rome, while the Eastern rite prevailed in Byzantium and beyond under the Bishop of Constantinople. The build up to schism began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire. In the West, 'Roman catholic' and 'Catholic' are essentially synonymous.

I was educated at Roman Catholic institutions in England. Although we never gave it much thought, I suppose we referred to ourselves as Catholics purely because adding 'Roman' was as cumbersome as it was unnecessary.

louiseyvette: "[are non-Catholics perhaps not saved?] Yes"
Anonymous: "[Catholic Church] is the whore of Babylon and the office of papacy is anti Christ"

If one of you is right, billions of people who thought they were going to paradise may be screaming in unimaginable pain, right now, forever. Ever since I was told about hell when I was 6 or 7, I have always hoped no such place exists.

My last word on this subject: If you are correct, Louiseyvette, why has no Catholic ever tried to warn or convert me? Not a week goes by without a Jehovas Witness offering me a flyer, ringing the bell... If they had the resources your church commands they would have converted half the world by now.

Between 1917-1919, Ukraine had 5 different declarations
of independance. The German supported 'Directorate' was only
a later one so its quite a stretch to imply that 'Ukraine was created
by Germany to annoy Russia'

Anonymous writes (26/1): "You are in bed with a murderous foreign power... That makes you a traitor to both God and country... the Church of Rome has shed more innocent blood than any other institution that has ever existed among mankind... fifty millions of men and women who refused to be parties to Romish idolatries, who held to the Bible as the Word of God."

I'm not defending Catholicism per se but please consider:

1) Until I was 25 I thought IRA was the only terrorist group in NI.
2) All my life I've heard awful things about Catholics, "the popes are in hell...".
3) Guy Fawkes night, Drake, hero of the Main; evil Mary, wonderful Elisabeth...

It's almost impossible for us to be objective about this faith. But modern, secular historians increasingly disagree with you & the things we were taught. Google: Dominic Selwood "How a protestant spin machine hid the truth..." for a good summary. England was a devote Catholic country before the Tudor period. Through thuggery, systematic persecution & desecration of almost every church in the land, the Protestant religion was forced on us.

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